Performance Characterisation of Wearable Cardiac Monitoring Devices for Aerospace Applications

Abstract

A growing number of aerospace human-machine system applications require real-time physiological monitoring of the human operator. These real-time measurements allow the system to estimate the operator's cognitive states, which can drive the level of automation support. This concept is adopted in our Cognitive Human-Machine Interfaces and Interactions (CHMI ² ) framework. Accurate and reliable measurements from the physiological sensors are essential for the CHMI ² concept to work. The Heart Rate (HR) is one of the most commonly monitored physiological variables in aerospace applications. In this paper, we evaluate the suitability of a common wearable cardiac monitoring device to carry out real time HR measurements. The validity is evaluated by comparing the processed measurements from the wearable device to a clinical validated device. Contrary to most studies which only target physical activity for such characterisation, we investigate a terminal manoeuvring area traffic management activity, which is a very challenging aerospace task involving a significant number of time-critical human-machine interactions where high levels of cognitive workload are experienced. The results from the presented characterisation support the suitability of the cardiac monitoring sensor for the intended CHMI ² system application.